Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the latter with a sagging roofline. Not all buildings are so interesting, however, and, after
a marshy area, there are long lines of featureless modern houses with small windows front
the canal at Cotmanhay. Having said that, Cotmanhay can boast the old Bridge Inn beside
an arched bridge that had to be replaced as it settled enough to give problems to some canal
craft. The 430m long lattice trestle Bennerley Viaduct used to carry twin railway tracks right
across the valley to Awsworth and is now preserved as a listed structure.
Contemporary buildings and an interesting roofline on the former stables by the lock at Shipley
.
Stenson's Lock is in open country but by Common Bottom Lock the canal has become
hemmed in with houses and small works. An occasional line of poplar trees adds variety and
there was another bridge by the lock, now burnt out. The canal forms the eastern boundary
of Ilkeston, a market and textile town with the Ilkeston Charter Fair each October. St Mary's
church, distinguished by its tower, dates from 1150 and has an unusual 14th century stone
screen.
Cossall, called Cossethay in
The Rainbow
, has a street of terraced houses leading down to
the canal. An open playing field area with a rugby pitch and a track where children might be
seen driving miniature replica vintage cars follows, and nature pushes back with giant reed-
mace, bulrushes and perhaps the odd vole swimming across the canal.
Pasture Lock, at Stanton Gate, still lives up to its name, with horses grazing in the mead-
ows. These stretch away to the hill that is topped by Sandiacre church with its original Nor-
man work and 600-year-old font, surrounded by a clump of half-timbered buildings.
A substantial-looking footbridge leads away over the railway to the larger Stapleford,
which keeps its distance. The pride of the canal's factories is Springfield Mills, built in 1888
